BREAKING NEWS

Cory E. Friedman, Scuttlebutt’s Legal Commentator, has a copy of the Agreement
between ISAF and SNG. Cory’s letter to Justice Kornreich lays out the status of
the matter – and that letter is now exclusively posted on the Scuttlebutt Forum.
To read it, just follow this link to the Forum and open the Kornreich.pdf
attachment:

No racing after lightning threatens fleet

A long delay ashore was followed by more waiting on the water but in the end there was no racing today.

The weather, or more specifically the imminent threat of lightning, finally took its toll today off Cartagena where the first races for the TP52 Series at the Caja Mediterraneo Region of Murcia Trophy had to be postponed.

After a postponement ashore the TP52 Series fleet were sent out to the race area at a little after two o’clock in the afternoon. The GP42 Series fleet waited around as well, due to get their official practice session away as soon as the TP52 first race went.
Whilst there was a period during which it looked promising with 13-17 knots of breeze blowing from the East, the only initial excitement was watching the IMOCA Open 60 fleet on the Istanbul Europa Race passing along the horizon, some five miles further offshore.

The wait looked like it would be rewarded when the race committee brought the ten boat TP52 fleet under starter’s orders, but within seconds of the start gun the AP flag went back up. They set off upwind anyway, taking the chance to learn the beat in the easterly breeze and nasty, choppy swell, but it was clear that the breeze was shifting all over the place further up the course.

Terry Hutchinson (USA), skipper of the current Audi MedCup champions Quantum Racing (USA) recalled:
“ We were at 10-15 seconds before the start when they postponed the race. We sailed the first mile, mile and a half of the beat and clearly it was getting shiftier as we went further upwind. So we got our mains down and waited. Then another thunder storm rolled through. Here we sit at the dock. So she took a very good decision.”

Meantime the schedule stands with the Coastal Race still planned for Thursday, but the forecast is not much more promising for tomorrow, but the GP42’s now go straight into racing tomorrow.

GP42’s: straight into it
With the weather today keeping teams off the water for their practice racing, the tensions cannot be diffused before the GP42’s take to the water in anger tomorrow. The stakes are high: Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP) and its young organic team from the Canary Islands are up against the veteran Roma 2 (ITA) team, led by match racing veteran Paolo Cian (ITA). Both are tied on points for the overall series title. Roma enjoyed an early lead in the series standings, but the young Canarias team have improved with each event, and are coming off a win in the class’s Owner Driver Championship in Cascais two weeks ago.

But there is also a new player on the GP42 field too: last year’s season champion Iberdola (ESP) is back, with the green machine led by skipper Laureano Wizner (ESP). For not having sailed for nearly a year, they had a credible showing two weeks ago in Cascais, and may find form to get into the fray quickly in this tight and tactically intense class.

The teams will also be using this event as a springboard towards their Global Championship event next month in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, where trade wind breezes and Atlantic swells make for very exciting sailing in these pocket rocketships.

Ashore, around the Audi MedCup race village, the inclement weather did little to dampen the enthusiasm. In the morning visitors were treated to a spectacular fly past by the Patrulla Aguila, a famous Spanish aerobatic display team.

Quotes of the day:

Thierry Peponnet (FRA) helm of Bribón (ESP):
“ Marcel (navigator Marcel van Triest) had told me there might be a possibility of racing between three and four, but after that, it’s finished. He’s the champion in weather forecasting. I think that they took the right decision by sending the boats out, and also stopping the race, even if it was just 30 seconds before the start. That us right. Not after the race starts, but before because

Steve Hayles (GBR) navigator Matador (ARG):
“ As raced officer you have got to try. I really think a lot of us thought it would never happen today, it was a really tough forecast so I think you have to try. And you have to put yourself in her (race officer Maria Torcida’s) shoes. She had 13-14 knots of wind when we went out and we had one hour to get one race. After that it looked really unlikely so for sure they had to try.”

First, there was no wind so we were postponed ashore. Then, we went out at about 1400. A few squalls passed over the area pulling the wind all over the place. Then, it rained hard and it still is.

Let’s hope tomorrow is better. Hard to be much worse, really.

Bishop Fleming releases survey results

By IBI Magazine

According to a recent survey conducted by UK accountancy firm Bishop Fleming, around 59 per cent of Britain’s South West marine businesses believe that their sector will not emerge from the recession until next year, or the year after.

Most respondents, at 57 per cent, have had their sales affected by the recession — almost a quarter (23 per cent) have seen sales reduced by one-tenth, while 16 per cent report sales down by a quarter.

“Almost three-quarters of our respondents said that the marine sector is not getting the recognition of its role in the South West’s economy, compared to tourism, agriculture, telecom-technology, and renewable energy,” says Charlie Thomson, the partner heading Bishop Fleming’s marine sector team.

“More than half (57 per cent) observed that the South West Regional Development Agency had identified the marine sector for priority focus, but have seen little practical funding aid. A further 30 per cent suggested that all the reasons for the Government to support the motor industry, like the scrapping scheme, should also apply to the marine industry in the South West.”

Meanwhile, 31 per cent of South West marine businesses have already had to lay off staff, and a further 30 per cent are now considering job cuts.

Nevertheless, the survey reveals an underlying confidence in the future. Some 24 per cent of respondents said that, although the region is losing some good businesses in the recession, others are investing in new ideas and new markets, ready for the upturn.

25 to 35 knots of wind in the western Spanish foreland, near Cape Finisterre! If there was no shortage of wind in the Atlantic since the start of The Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50, the 85 solos sailors, after 48 hours of mad sprint are in search of their second wind. The start was particularly exhausting, the performance of sailing with a spinnaker in the breeze aboard the smallest boats in offshore racing, has started to lower the physical strength of men and women.
All, then, took good care to find the right tone, and this morning, the strategies took a more conservative aspect, wisdom dictates to put away the spinnakers, small or medium, to take two or three reef in the mainsail. The fleet has deplored “only” three returns to port, all temporary and already relegated to the status of incidents. Two stops in Gijon and La Coruña are ongoing and no abandon has been declared.
more images here

Impressive Lobato
The race however, with this highly athletic quality, is nothing less than exciting. The mano a mano, edge-to-edge, wake in the wake between Series leader, Francisco Lobato (ROFF TMN) and the leading man of Protos HP Schipman (Maison de l’avenir Urbatys) is amazing. The Young Portuguese is already accustomed to leadership and battling with his victory in the scratch in the Les Sables- Les Açores-Les Sables in 2008. All the favourites in the race will cling to enter the same movement, in the highest gust that will propel them at record speed along the coast of the Iberian Peninsula to Funchal. There is now only Schipman and Thomas Ruyant (Faber France), to keep the pace of the Portuguese – imperial in his waters. The head of the race sails off Vigo.

Trajectories stories
Fifteen miles separate the three protagonists of another story at the start of the race, the unexpected Xavier Macaire and his Series “Masoco Bay”. A strong swell (almost three meters) and the strong wind, nearly thirty knots, are leading – for the most part of the fleet on its way out of the Bay of Biscay – a tactical thoughts… To remain in the strongest wind along the coast, or to already head west to find more moderate flows increasingly oriented in the axis of the boat? Without any external assistance, the solos rely entirely on their seamanship and their individual experiences to manage their trajectories ignoring the position of their opponents. This is the nature and the magic of this race. Stéphane on Diraison (Cultisol-Marins sans frontière), already knows that he is sailing in the far west of his classmates? A gap of about thirty miles in latitude already, that can ultimately help for his return to the head of the fleet. All the favourites, Fabien Després, Rémi Auburn, Bertrand Delesne and Andrea Caracci come flirt with Spanish lands, when the South African Matt Trautman is the surprise guest of the top ten. Now, it is 36 hours of long breeze that are ahead. A breeze that imposes an absolute necessity to preserve the boat in a tailwind configuration which requires the delicate exercise of repeated jibes with their bunch of bulks, hauls and great terrors when the bow just dive into the wave…

A thrill that both Davy Beaudart – in technical stopover in Gijon – Franck Colin – in stop in La Coruna – want to feel quickly. At the heart of the Bay of Biscay, Olivier Avram is very demanding with his strong “Cap Monde 2″ – the bowsprit is repaired. The danger for him is, of course, to see the wind blow away the fleet. He obviously want to rapidly return in the squad, as did the night before another unlucky starter, the young Sébastien Rogues who took in a lively manner his Series “Generation Eole GDF SUEZ” inside the fleet back.

Fernando Íñigo on the Sponsorship Benefits of the Audi Med Cup.

It’s September, which means that for the next 12 weeks or so, companies will be looking at their marketing budgets for 2010 and listening to pitches from all kinds of sports looking for sponsorship.

The Audi Med Cup has been steadily growing over the last few years and is recognised by sailors at least as being one of the top events on the world sailing calendar. This has been helped somewhat by the vacuum created by the stalling of the America’s Cup – with teams like Emirates Team New Zealand choosing the Med Cup as a vehicle to keep the team together and practise big-boat sailing.

Sailing makes it really hard for those raising sponsorship by announcing dates and venues too late for the aquisition process, but the Med Cup have already announced their five dates for 2010 helping to de-risk commercial partner’s decisions a little.

The following interview with Fernando Íñigo, Marketing and Communications Director of the Circuit, was released by the series a couple of weeks back.